Long Beach firefighters battle West Park Avenue blaze

Long Beach firefighters rushed to the scene of a building fire at 244 West Park Ave. Thursday morning.

Courtesy Long BEach Fire Department

Firefighters were able to prevent the fire from spreading to nearby businesses, officials said.

Courtesy Kelly Sullivan/Facebook

By Anthony Rifilato

Long Beach firefighters battled through heavy smoke conditions while extinguishing a blaze along the 200 block of West Park Avenue Thursday morning.

Police and firefighters rushed to the scene of a building fire just before 8 a.m., where first arriving units observed heavy, black smoke from the front door of iLoveKickboxing.com, a gym at 244 West Park Ave.

Firefighters entered the building and quickly located the fire, which officials said was confined to a small portion of the ceiling. Fire Chief Joseph Miller said that embers were falling from the ceiling and burning the gym’s rubber flooring below, causing heavy smoke conditions. He added that firefighters were able to prevent the fire from spreading to nearby businesses.

“It was a small fire, electrical in nature, and we were able to put it out quickly,” Miller said. “One of the light fixtures, something electrical happened causing a small fire, and with those rubber mats [in the gym], it made it burn really quick.”

Miller said that the incident occurred between classes at the gym, and no injuries were reported. A portion of West Park Avenue, between Laurelton and Magnolia boulevards, was closed eastbound while police, fire and EMS units were on the scene.